Night Star - Children of The Lily 2
by Becks
Summary: Sequal to Night Blade, more inside
1. Well Met By Moonlight

  
  
Super model, glamour queen, rich, famous, vampire? That's Andromeda Redfern one of the 'vermin's' top models and a Night World council enforcer. When she's asked to hunt down a renegade illegally made vampire, she sees only another job. Even after the warning from her concerned brother that all is not what it seems. After being forced to re evaluate her own immortality she begins to wonder whether serving her own ends could be as profitable as serving the councils and runs into deadly danger.   
  
  
Thanks to: Ki, for what? Oh you'll find out later, Camilla, Diomede* who told me to write another one (sorry shes not as bitchy as Lynx....i dont think its possible) and everyone else who reviewed Night Blade  
  
  
  
"Turn and stop.....walk and pout, perfect! Ok Andrea, that's a wrap" She opened her mouth and then shut it again before walking away from the cameras swearing under her breath in Spanish. She made it to a swarthy looking man in a puce suit before she exploded "I am never working for this imbecile again" she shouted bringing several chins up from his chest. For a second he appeared about to protest but gave up under the baleful stare of a pair of perfect aqua eyes. "Fair enough Ms Andromeda, lets just get your money and go then" and they did.  
  
***  
  
Andromeda was still swearing when she arrived for her meeting at around 11.55 p.m. "Why do vermin have so much trouble with four simple syllables?" she groaned to the wall at the end of the alleyway she hadn't expected an answer "They have trouble wiping their asses how can you expect their higher functions to work?" she spun custom pistol in hand when a low chuckle that she recognised floated from the top of the wall and her in-drawn breath sighed outwards "Talon Solitaire, must you creep up on me?"   
  
The were wolf she had been expecting dropped down into the alley swiping back mud brown hair and still laughing at his own humour. "Creep up on you? Andromeda my sweet, creeping up on you is damn near impossible, so I'll take your little explosion of temper as a compliment."  
  
She would have laughed except for the fact that Talon Solitaire was the best at what he did and he crept up on people for a living. She straightened her shoulders and looked him over, at 6'3 he was tall for a Were wolf he was also smart, very very smart. The hair was a dye job she'd seen it in its full glory a bright auburn that came very close to her sisters blood red and eyes black as midnight spilt oil, the contacts were a nasty brown he looked like a college geek.  
  
"What's the news?" He looked at her with one eyebrow raised before leaning back against the wall suddenly serious. "Your sisters gone AWOL from her apartment, but that's nothing new, we have an assignment, in two different places"   
  
An assignment in two different places, that was the more worrying piece of news, Lynx was quite capable of taking care of herself, plus an entire regiment of hungry Dragons if necessary. But she and Talon had been together for almost forty years now, they were an effective team, she looked at him a question in her eyes.   
  
A sigh almost worked past his guard and he suddenly looked tired "Please don't ask me, they've sworn me to secrecy, even from you, but they want you after some rogue vampire with a passion for beautiful women" He made a mock lecherous glance but his heart wasn't in it, he normally teased much closer to the edge of her tolerance. She smiled and threw a bundle at him "Here, I can't be the best dressed Enforcer on the team with you looking that bad, especially if you insist on coming to Aspens Samhaine doo next month."   
  
His grin reappeared in a sudden dangerous motion "I've been coming to Aspens doo's longer than you have, you overdressed slapper" She felt her smile curve up the corners of her mouth "True, and looking as if you got blew up with dear old granddaddy every time" he flipped her a finger and threw a CD at her, she fielded it out of the air and flipped one back.  
  
"That's the data you need on your man" the innuendo in the sentence was almost painful, she winced and made a mock moan, he had slipped up the wall like a lizard and was looking down at her, the moon reflecting like fire in the darkness of his eyes. "Take care Andromeda, I want to you alive to see me wearing whatever crap you've dreamed up for me" She winked up at him, unconcerned to the core she was the best there was at what she did, a family trait.  
  
"Redfern Rules apply Talon my lovely, Redfern Rules apply" a momentary chuckle from the top of the wall and then he was gone but his last words floated back to her as she made her way to the Lexus that was waiting for her.  
  
"Isn't that what your mother thought?"  



	2. Beauty Is In The Beholders Eye

Thanks to Camilla and Myst who said Lynx's story needed finishing :) well it dosent finish she's a person with a life of her own, but she will turn up from time to time !  
  
  
She stretched and yawned appreciating the feel of silk against her skin, she was a hedonist, but she felt her choice of professions amongst the vermin allowed her a little hedonism from time to time. She looked across the room and straight into her own eyes, the light blue of forget me not's, never forgotten once glanced. It all hinted at the Harman blood that had forever tainted the Redfern line.   
  
The arguments she could remember her mother and her grandfather having had been legendary even for the hot tempered Redfern's, especially the arguments over Lynx and her training. Why her mother couldn't have just given in gracefully she didn't know, the fact that the brat had been born in Theirry Descoudres mansion had been the final straw as far as dear old Hunter had been concerned. He wanted to make sure she hadn't been tainted with the Nightlord's famous compassion.  
  
As far as she could see nothing had made Lynx compassionate, she'd been with her sister on assignment in Texas. The blood that she had seen running the ground even hours afterwards was enough to give the hardest heart nightmares. She'd watched her little sister look at it with uninterested gold eyes and say one word, all the time with that eerie blade shimmering at her side.   
  
The word had been 'messy'  
  
Hunter probably would have been proud, she hadn't been, Aspen had been horrified. Her big brother seemed to have inherited the lions share of compassion for their branch of the family. But he too adhered to the Redfern Rules, same as the rest of the Night World, or at least the rest of the Night World made it look as if they adhered to the rules.   
  
Sighing she slid out of the round queen size bed feeling the friction of black silk sheets against her bare legs, her eyes still locked with her mirror images. The red silk of her Night-gown ended at mid thigh, her skin was the pure clear white that only three types of people ever had, redheads, albinos and people with true black hair. Her legs were long and shapely, like the rest of her. Her waist was small, the tie of her robe accented it, she wasn't anorexic like most of her contemporaries though. Her breasts were larger than she would of liked, but she was Lamia, reductions were right out.   
  
Stretching for a moment she let her mind drift back to the Redfern rules as she reached for the clothes she had planned for today's journey. Her brother had joked once that it should actually be Redfern Rule's because that was what they did, their house ran the Night World. Or it would as long as they steered well clear of the mad Daybreakers, people listened to the Redfern's or at least they did if they new what was good for them.   
  
It also referred to their almost phenomenal run of luck, apart from the occasional staking through stupidity, or soulmate idiocy, until her mother and Hunter's demise at the hands of the Wildpower's Redfern's didn't get hurt, they chose when they died, or they didn't die at all. Even Lynx who was prone to fits of suicidally idiotic daring, for large amounts of money of course, only carried a few scars on her body.   
  
She had dressed she realised, almost without thinking about it, having showered before she bedded down, she released her hair from its braid and brushed it out before looking at herself in the mirror again. Her face was beautiful, she knew that, all Night Worlders were beautiful in some way, even if they were merely wild like Lynx. They attracted vermin like flies to the honey dew flower.   
  
But she would have been beautiful even if she had been born human, her face was a perfect renaissance oval her brows were a pure jet black and arched upwards in a flawless curve her nose was small and straight and her mouth was a deep red cupids bow. Her eyelashes were thick and long and looking out from them were a pair of eyes that varied according to her mood from the deep blue at the heart of a morning-glory to the pale ice normally found only in huskies. Her hair cascaded to the floor in a sheer wave of liquid darkness touched lightly with blue where the light hit it.  
  
Looking at it all she sighed and for a moment envied her sister and their cousins, beautiful in the Night World way but only pretty otherwise. The way she looked guaranteed her a lonely life, another Redfern rule, although an unofficial one, you would always be alone unless you found a soulmate to 'soften' you. She was more alone than usual, women hated her because she was beautiful without being brain dead, and men either lusted after her or hated her for not lusting after them. It was why she treasured Talons laughing friendship, and her brother, and her sister, although letting on to Lynx that she cared probably would have earned her a knife through the spine, to give her some steel in her backbone, she'd seen her do it before.   
  
Ash had laughed, bless him.  
  
Another one lost to Daybreak, damn their pacifist hides to perdition. Ash had been one of the good bits of the Night World, someone who hadn't lost their sense of humour but also had steel. It had taken one little human to steal him away, she wondered if, no, there had been an email from Lynx stating the girl was under their protection. Oh well, old age would take care of that problem before anything drastic was necessary.  
  
She strolled over to her laptop and looked over the information that Talon had given her yesterday, Janis McAllen, a vampire for all of three years, what a shame, two more and he would have managed to win free. But now he was a wanted man, a rogue vampire and illegal too. And, oh dearie dear, she felt her smile spread slightly. He was in Las Vegas and suspected of making contact with Daybreak. This was going to be a lark, into Vegas, on business, Daybreak couldn't touch her, kill a Vampire who shouldn't have existed anyway and out again on the first available flight. Ah gods this would be fun.  
  
Flipping her hair with a hand so that it fell out of her face she moved towards the phone at the side of her apartment when her mobile went off. She frowned, it was playing Temptation Waits by Garbage so it had to be Aspen, that or someone else ringing from his council office. She picked up the mobile and pressed the call receive button.  
  
"You called the goddess listens" For a moment there was just breathing and then the laugh she knew better than her own breathed down the phone like sunshine on satin. "'Meda my sweet that has to be the worst pick up line I've ever heard" She felt her smile begin of its own accord, the corners of her mouth turning up just to hear the effervescence of his voice. "How are you Aspen?" There was a pause "I'm fine 'Meda, I hear you have an appointment?"   
  
She almost laughed, he brother was so well informed it was almost painful "Redfern Rules Aspen?" he chuckled "I suppose you could say so, what's the point of being on this sad excuse for a council if you can't have your own way?" There she thought spoke several centuries of undisputed feudal power and arrogance, most people wouldn't argue at having the council follow their every whim, Aspen did, he expected better of them.  
  
"No point at all big brother, now, what do you want?" He dove straight in, right to the point as it were "Have you heard from Lynx?" she shook her head, caring heart and complete dictator "No, I suspect she's living it somewhere for a little while. Since the Night World isn't celebrating her demise she'll probably see us at Samhaine" She felt his relief and smiled a little more brightly but he obviously wasn't finished "Your assignment, 'Meda be careful, I don't think its at all what it seems. We may have a leak"  
  
Her entire body froze with the sort of instant clarity that had helped the Redfern's from Maya's day "Damn, damn all the Daybreakers to everlasting torment, I'll pay Lynx to practice on them all" hearing her brothers light laugh on the phone helped to warm her from the cold fury she had been in "That's mean 'Meda, but I'd buy a seat, I want you to be careful, be careful and be well covered, I don't need to loose another family member"  
  
There was a beeping from the other pocket of the coat that the mobile she was talking on had come from, the office, and at a damn inconvenient time. "Aspen I have to go, I have a call on the other line. I'll take best care of me, don't loose Talon while you've got him will you, training another puppy would be damn inconvenient" There was a laugh at the other end of the phone and then the dial tone. They'd long believed in not saying goodbye, it sounded too final, so they didn't say anything, aurevoirs among the Redfern's tended to last for decades at a time.  
  
She picked up the other phone and lowered her voice to a half seductive purr, it was her everyday voice and well used "Andromeda here, how can I help you?" the way she said help was meant to make the average male temp shake in his shoes, not necessarily with fear. "Andromeda, we have a booking for you in Las Vegas, starting tomorrow, can you fly out tonight, a guy called MorningStar, Natasha MorningStar?" The corner of her mouth twitched in a real smile, Nat MorningStar, a Native American Vampire photographer with a sense of humour, known on the circuit as Satan, for obvious and not so obvious reasons.   
  
"Yes I can fly today" she let a hint of boredom slip into her voice as the man recited flight details, and security. She put the phone down with a slight laugh, security, she didn't need security. She stretched and half laughed as she went to begin her packing.  
  
"Redfern Rules love, Redfern Rules"   
  
***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
Authors PLEA !!!!  
  
Hey Hey This is a call out to all Night World writers :)  
  
Nightworld books take place in America, what i want to do is start  
a series in England, becuse before the protestnts ran over there  
on the Mayflower the only people that were there were the Native  
American Indians, even Hunter had to Go over as A Pilgrim :)  
  
So what happened to the Night World scene over here? Please get onto   
me at  
  
Lynx_Redfern@lycos.com  
  
If your at all interested, you dont have to be a Brit, just capable  
of writing for somewhere in Britan, i can give out Facts on London.  
If you want to write for Europe thats good too, but somewhere other  
than America, this is my pet project *S*   
  
If you dont have time to email me, drop me a review either signed  
or with your mail address and i'll get back to you !!!!!  
  
Stars and Shadows  
  
Becks 


	3. Leavin' On A Jet Plane

Thanks to Ki and to Camilla my stalker, what would i do without someone to kis....kick my ass?  
  
  
The plane trip had been fairly comfortable, she travelled business class, first class was of course possible, she had more money than she'd known what to do with for well over a century now. But business class was more comfortable than any of the others, plus it allowed her to hook up her laptop and continue her reading.   
  
Most people if they'd looked over her shoulder would have thought she was playing some sort of Dungeons and Dragons campaign. There was a web page up Night Star, home of the enforcers. It had been her synonym for years, they laughed about it. She and Aspen, they had all be nicknamed for the night in some way or another. Their sister, the Night Blade, herself and Aspen Night Flame, he who burned brightest. She shook off the introspection and continued to check the database.   
  
It told her that there were messages for her, and a guestbook entry, probably another person wanting to 'join' their game. Vermin were laughable sometimes, they never wanted to look past what was into what could be. She logged in and frowned, there had been a password breach, cursed Hackers. What was she meant to do about that, she logged their access code. A home number, excellent. She typed a few words and pressed the launch button. Their little hacker would be dealt with in a matter of hours. And dealt with Night World style.   
  
Now for the messages, two directed at someone else, and one to her, almost predictably from Talon.  
  
To: STAR  
From: HUNTINGWOLF  
  
Title: NOW LISTEN HERE......  
  
Star if you ever give me something like this again I'll have to hurt you, I am not a bondage monthly model. Have fun on your next porn shoot, I'll buy the mag.  
  
HW  
  
She laughed, Talon was so predictable, he hated everything she wanted him to wear that why she had a double bluff planned. She hit the reply button and smiled to herself as she typed up her message.  
  
To: HUNTINGWOLF  
From: STAR  
  
Title: Re: NOW LISTEN HERE......  
  
Wolf, I thought you'd hate it, so I have something else planned, its in my apartment in a plastic suit hanger in the walk in wardrobe, you cant miss it, it's the only men's clothes in there. You have a choice of two, I'm going underground now, so I'll see you around and about. The mag is more expensive than my last paycheque and your chances of seeing me in it are as slim as Hunter turning up to my next party.  
  
STAR  
  
Ps you'd look good in bondage monthly  
  
Xx  
  
That done she logged onto the guestbook, as she'd guessed an Anne Rice fan would love to play a 'police vampire' she shook her head. Idiots they were all idiots, Daybreak needed their collective heads examined. She logged out and sent a wipe command to the subroutines, she knew enough computer lingo to stop people tracing her calls.   
  
Then she logged into NightWorld.com and went straight for the members only section. Lets see, she wanted a new katana, the specialised section had one, she raised her eyebrows at the price but hit the buy option. Then she answered the questions that followed. She had ten seconds to prove her identity or the computer would be infected with a virus that would keep her going for months. She wished sometimes she was in her sisters line of work then the entire process went out the window, assassins just entered and paid.   
  
Now she wanted a twenty four hour deliver, since she'd be in Vegas there wouldn't be a problem with that, she could have popped down to the warehouse and picked it up herself, but she wanted to keep cover, she had to be the lazy model she was known to be, not the Council Enforcer that she was.   
  
Logging off she checked her mail. One from Aspen telling her to be careful, again, he'd had a bad feeling. Damn, Aspens prophecy's were rarely wrong. But she had to do this, you didn't refuse assignments from the council, even if your brother had recently been elected as its president. Now there was something new, Lynx_Redfern an email from her sister, she normally had to rely on Aspen for knowledge of her sisters moments. Ah looked like she still did.  
  
To: Aspen_Redfern@Mailcity.com  
CC: Night_Star@NightStar.com  
  
From: Lynx_Redfern@mailcity.com  
  
Leave me alone Aspen. I'm alive and fairly well, the Mary Lynette thing stands, I owed Ash a favour. Seems I've succumbed to the family curse, no fear of becoming a Daybreaker, I'll bring him to the party.  
  
Lynx  
  
She felt her eyebrows raise to her hairline, the family curse…. Her little sister had acquired a Soulmate, thank the benevolent spirits, not a Daybreaker. The party would definitely be interesting this year. Now her little sister wouldn't be a worry at all, she hoped she'd gotten saddled with someone like herself, then they might breed true. Or perhaps not, an entire breed of Redfern's like Lynx, a thought to make a grown vampire cry.   
  
A ping, the fasten seatbelts sign, time to enter Vegas. She hoped this assignment wouldn't take too long, the thought of staying in a hotel for too long gave her the shivers, they normally had some sort of disgusting sheets.  
  
She shut down the laptop after wiping it all over again, she fastened her seatbelt and sat back, pulling out a light compact, her hair was still confined in the long braid and tucked behind her ears. If she hadn't been wearing a red silk shirt tucked into Armani jeans custom dyed silver she could almost have been some rich mans girl Friday.  
  
A slight smirk crossed her face, how she missed the sixties.  
  
Then the plane began its descent and she closed her eyes to begin her plan, she had a rogue to catch.   



End file.
